Atlanta Symphony Orchestra General Manager of Popular Venues Clay Schell may be new to the classical music world – he joined the ASO in December 2007 – but he’s been in the entertainment business since 1977.

For 20 years, Atlanta has been the home of the National Black Arts Festival (NBAF), a year-round celebration of the art and culture of African descendants in America. This month, the NBAF is presenting a wide variety of unique exhibits, concerts and lectures to entertain and educate festival goers.

In Atlanta, less than half of all inner-city students graduate high school. Throughout America, barely half of the students in the 50 biggest cities graduate. Ironically, the best solution cities have discovered is something that’s being eliminated from many public schools: arts education …

Susan Booth, the Alliance Theatre’s artistic director, traveled to New York in 2005 for the Broadway premiere of The Color Purple. “I had this great experience,” Booth says. “This woman – who will go nameless – was there from Atlanta. In the lobby, she caught up with me and said, ‘We have to bring this to Atlanta.’

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is the only U.S. orchestra to simultaneously perform and operate in two major amphitheatres: the 6,500-seat Chastain Park Amphitheater and the new 7,000-seat Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Alpharetta’s Encore Park for the Arts…